The present invention relates to a swimming pool ladder guard, and in particular to a guard for swimming pool ladders mounted on the walls of a pool to prevent the accidental entanglement of a swimming vacuum unit behind the ladder. Because of the rather tedious task of cleaning pools, various automatic devices have been developed which minimize the amount of work required for cleaning. A number of these devices operate by being self-propelled and advance across the floor and side walls of the swimming pool and clean the pool using either a brushing or vacuum operation. One of the shortcomings in using such devices is that they often become entangled where the wall and/or floor surfaces are discontinuous, such as around steps and ladders.
The general problem has been recognized in the prior art in the patent to Altschul U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,429 which shows the use of a ladder guard in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, and the patent to McJunkin U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,124 which shows a swimming pool step guard to block the entrance of a pool vacuum or sweeper into the stairwell of a pool.